China has pledged to prioritise the development of artificial intelligence for the first time within the government's latest annual work report, underlining its ambition to lead what has fast become one of the hottest areas of global technological innovation. One analyst is now projecting the industry in China to grow by more than 50 per cent in value to 38 billion yuan (US$5.5 billion) by 2018. "We will implement a comprehensive plan to boost strategic emerging industries," said Premier Li Keqiang in his delivery at the annual parliamentary session in Beijing over the weekend. "We will accelerate research & development (R&D) on, and the commercialisation of new materials, artificial intelligence (AI), integrated circuits, bio-pharmacy, 5G mobile communications, and other technologies." Artificial intelligence, which focusses on creating machines that work and react like humans, will create the next industrial revolution and China and "should grab the opportunity to overtake other global competitors" in the field, added Zhou Hanmin, a member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the nation's top political advisory body, during the "two sessions".

With the broad release of Google Assistant last week, the voice-assistant wars are in full swing, with Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Microsoft Corp and now Alphabet Inc's Google all offering electronic assistants to take your commands. Siri is the oldest of the bunch, and researchers including Oren Etzioni, chief executive officer of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Seattle, said Apple has squandered its lead when it comes to understanding speech and answering questions. But there is at least one thing Siri can do that the other assistants cannot: speak 21 languages localized for 36 countries, a very important capability in a smartphone market where most sales are outside the United States. With the broad release of Google Assistant last week, the voice-assistant wars are in full swing, with Apple Inc, Amazon.com

During the demo, Pittman asked the bot to help him price a Canon camera. After asking him about its condition and model, the bot gave him an estimate. The exec says it could bring more sellers to eBay, since people can easily find out if some of the junk they have lying around are valuable enough to be sold. "When technology can start doing the heavy lifting and providing you with a concierge-like personalized service," he added, "then that's when we've really made great strides." Unfortunately, he didn't say when the feature will roll out to users, though Google revealed that eBay has migrated to its cloud platform from Microsoft Azure.

From Amazon shopping recommendations, Facebook image recognition, and personal assistants like Siri*, Cortana*, and Alexa*, your phone is becoming a portal to real-world applications of artificial intelligence. Learn more about how A.I. is becoming part of your everyday life, and how your phones are your direct connection to the evolving world of artificial intelligence.

My wife used to love reading but since her stroke has aphasia, no speech, limited vision and limited dexterity in her left hand only. She can select TV channels on a remote but she cannot read a short news story let alone a novel, so she listens to the radio and watches a lot of TV. I thought of getting her a Kindle e-reader but they don't seem to do text to speech any more. A shop assistant suggested a tablet with a text-to-speech app. It needs a really simple interface or my wife will not be able to use it without assistance.

Autonomous or driverless vehicles are a hot topic on the AI scene right now. Google, Volvo, Tesla, Uber… these are just some of the big names in the race to prove that driverless or autonomous vehicles are better and maybe even safer than human-driven vehicles. I was at a family event recently and two guests were chatting about the Artificial Intelligence (AI) component of driverless or autonomous vehicles and more specifically, how these vehicles are currently unable to detect human movement at high speed. One cited the example of a child stepping into the road whilst a vehicle was approaching at high speed. Some debate ensued about the width of lanes in the road (surrounding the vehicle) and the impact they have on the judgement of the driverless/autonomous vehicles.

Determining the value of some of that old gear taking up space in your closet or garage might become a lot easier if you have a Google Home. In an onstage demo at Google Cloud Next, eBay chief product officer RJ Pittman showed how the online auctioneer might tie into Google's digital assistant. He started in by asking the bot if eBay could find the value of his Canon digital camera. You can ask me what something is worth," the bot introduced itself. The chatbot asked a couple of follow-up questions, including the model of the camera (it was an EOS 5D), if it was new, and its overall condition.

Technology must be controlled in order to safeguard the future of humanity, Stephen Hawking has warned. The physicist, who has spoken out about the dangers of artificial intelligence in the past, says a'world government' could be our only hope. He says our'logic and reason' could be the only way to defeat the growing threat of nuclear or biological war. We are living through the most dangerous time in the history of the human race, according to Professor Stephen Hawking. 'Since civilisation began, aggression has been useful inasmuch as it has definite survival advantages,' he told The Times. 'It is hard-wired into our genes by Darwinian evolution. 'Now, however, technology has advanced at such a pace that this aggression may destroy us all by nuclear or biological war.

The Amazon Echo, a voice-controlled virtual assistant, is seen at its product launch for Britain and Germany in London, in 2016. After several months of pushback, Amazon has agreed to release user data from an Amazon Echo device involved in a high-profile Arkansas murder trial. The device, a popular, hands-free artificial intelligence assistant named "Alexa" that responds to human directives, contains audio recordings that prosecutors say could could provide information in the murder of Victor Collins, 47, who was found dead in his hot tub on Nov. 22, 2015, in Bentonville, Arkansas. James Bates, 31, was charged with first-degree murder and tampering with evidence in the case. Benton County Prosecuting Attorney Nathan Smith wrote in an email that prosecutors were "pleased" with Amazon's decision.

Just a couple years ago, the idea of asking questions to a voice -controlled speaker would seem completely foreign. Now there are multiple devices to choose from, with more on the way. That competition begs the question: which AI speaker can answer more questions: Google Home or Amazon Echo? Luckily, you won't have to sit down with both the devices to find out the answer to that question. Digital marketing and research company Stone Temple Consulting put the speakers head-to-head and quizzed them each on a number of questions to see who came out on top.